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Carrie Underwood Bio
As winner of American Idol‘s fourth season and one of the most-awarded country artists of the 21st century, Carrie Underwood has been a regular star featured on American television since 2005. But even stars have humble beginnings, and Carrie Underwood was no exception. She grew up singing in local talent shows around her home state of Oklahoma and in church, influenced by the mixture of music that came around from all genres during the 1980s. At the age of 14, she went to Nashville for a potential record deal with Capitol Records; however, those plans fell through and she ended up pursuing a degree in journalism in 2004. The summer before she started her senior year of college, Underwood made a last-minute decision to try out for American Idol’s fourth season. By that point, American Idol had reached its peak of popularity with ratings, and she saw it as the final opportunity to pursue a singing career before “settling down” with a real job in journalism. Her mother drove her to St. Louis, Missouri, nearly 400 miles from home, and she found herself standing before the three judges at that time - talent manager Simon Cowell, former 80s pop star and dancer Paula Abdul, and session bass player Randy Jackson of Journey ''fame. Underwood chose to cover Bonnie Raitt’s 1991 single, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”, a moment that was aired during the audition rounds for season four. She received positive feedback from all three of the judges and subsequently moved on to the showcase. From there, Underwood seemed to coast safely week by week as the season’s token country singer. Up until that season, no country singers had progressed significantly over the course of three previous seasons. When only eleven contestants remained in the season, Underwood delivered a cover of Heart’s version of “Alone”, a performance that subsequently placed her at the top of the race. Following the performance, Simon Cowell accurately predicted that she would not only win the competition, but also outsell the three previous winners, including Idol’s first winner, Kelly Clarkson, who was well on her way to becoming a pop superstar at that time. Ultimately, the finale came down to Underwood and early favorite Bo Bice. Singing “Inside Your Heaven”, a single co-written by pop craftsman Savan Kotecha, and meant to be released as the initial single by the winner, Underwood was named American Idol’s next superstar on May 25, 2005. It seemed that she was destined to be a big star from the get-go; “Inside Your Heaven” flew to the top of Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles chart just weeks after she became the winner. In the subsequent years that have followed, Underwood has enjoyed the same kind of success, more or less. She has since released fifteen number one singles on Billboard’s Country Airplay, with dozens of the same being certified platinum by the RIAA, for sales of one million and counting. Keeping with the wave of international attention she received as a result of the ''American Idol ''win, Underwood achieved probably the most success a new country artist could have at that time; she scooped up the Grammy award for Best New Artist in 2007 and, as of now, her debut album ''Some Hearts has been certified platinum 8 times, more times than any other country album that came out during that decade. More than number one hits and platinum albums, though, Underwood has proven over a fourteen-year span as one of mainstream country’s most visible artists, that she has a unique message to add to country music’s history, in the songs that she has helped write. Admittedly, there are lots of token cheating male characters in her songs, but others - namely “Temporary Home”, “See You Again”, “Something in the Water”, and “Love Wins” - promote messages of hope and healing for life’s most difficult circumstances. Underwood has also promoted wholesome messages centered around family and community, without ever coming across as forceful, which can be heard in songs like “Mama’s Song”, ”Don’t Forget to Remember Me”, and “Kingdom”. Looking at Underwood, blonde hair and smokey eye shadow donned for a show, it’s easy to imagine her as the prom queen of the country music industry. Certainly, songs like “All-American Girl” and “Good Girl”, as well as an affiliation with the NFL’s Sunday night football theme song, only add to that perception. Even her voice has typically portrayed a sense of poise and strength, occasionally murderous rage, on classics like “Two Black Cadillacs.” In fact, it wasn’t until the release of her sixth album that Underwood finally dropped that strong exterior and showcased a new emotion - vulnerability. Despite being watched and judged since literally day one of her career in the spotlight, Underwood has always remained remarkably composed under the scrutiny that comes with being a headlining musician. Her personal life has been kept carefully clean and free of surprises, no matter how many stories the tabloids could dream up. Finally, though, after a tough year that included a nasty fall and subsequent facial stitches, Underwood got a bit more candid about her private life, and in doing so, opened the dialogue for more women to come forward with their own struggles. Tearfully, on camera in front of millions of people, she gave an interview revealing she had suffered multiple miscarriages over the course of one year. The pain was palpable. Suddenly, Underwood’s newest hit single, “Cry Pretty”, took on a new meaning, as she discussed having to give interviews or write songs for her new album, which ended up also being named Cry Pretty, while keeping her miscarriages a secret. Listening to a particular song on the album, called “Low”, some fans might wonder if the singer tapped into those emotions while recording the song. Although there are certainly pain-riddled songs on the album, there’s also quite a bit of joy, felt in songs like “Love Wins” and “Kingdom”, both appearing at the back half of the tracklist. “It’s two kids flying down the hall, in the morning, into our bedroom,“ she sings, essentially foreshadowing that her family was about to get bigger. Just four months after releasing Cry Pretty, Underwood gave birth to her second son, having carried him for nine months and hardly missing any public performances to promote her new music. Maintaining a career as high-profile as it gets, plus raising a growing family in the process, sounds more hectic than desirable. However, if anyone can do it, it would be Carrie Underwood, who has shown that she can be strong when she needs to be, but kind and generous at the same time. Her mission seems to be to inspire some beauty in the modern-day world, and she was quoted at one time saying, “Successful people have a social responsibility to make the world a better place and not just take from it.” It will be interesting to see what kind of legacy and example she will leave for more entertainers who follow.